Cavan fluke epidemic sees surge in demand for doses

This year's wet weather has seen the spread of liver fluke to 100% amongst cattle in Cavan that are not treated, and a surge in demand for the drugs to treat it. Cavan based veterinary surgeon, Sean O'Reilly, says that the relentless rain has been conducive to the spread of worm by host snails and farmers must dose their livestock to avoid the debilitating consequences. "In wet weather the snails travel much further and they spread it over a much wider area. It is very common in any low-lying areas or any place that is wet. "All cattle from this part of the country not treated with an anthelmintic will have some fluke in them. Unless they have been treated there's 100% infection rate." Rumen fluke, which affects the stomach, is also very prevalent in cattle at present, but it is not as problematic for the livestock. Mr O'Reilly said that it may be difficult to assess if an animal has liver fluke and normally it is discovered postmortem in the factories. It has a very debilitating effect and causes liver cirrhosis. While there are no health issues related to consuming beef from an infected animal, it's liver will be rejected by the factory. Mr O'Reilly explains that this is the most effective time for treating the cattle. "Christmas time is the best time to treat them," Mr O'Reilly told The Anglo-Celt. "It depends on the maturity of the fluke. The anthelmintics are not very effective against the immature fluke, whereas they are very effective against mature fluke. "The cattle would be picking fluke up all summer. They are normally housed in the autumn time so by Christmas they have been indoors for about two months, so you are dealing with all mature fluke worms at that stage." However, one general merchant, Leo McCabe of Canningstown, told The Anglo-Celt that such is the demand for fluke treatments that they had sold out. They are expecting a new delivery in January. When it comes to dairy cattle he says there is a withdrawal time for the drug to leave the system, so the anthelmintic has to be administered when they are not milking. People talk about fencing them off from wet areas, but every place has wet areas in Cavan, so that is not a realistic option. There is no other realistic way of controlling it. He said that liver fluke is even more hazardous for untreated sheep. "Sheep are worse," he said. "They suffer more, and they need to be dosed much more often. It generally kills sheep if they are neglected at all. It doesn't kill cattle, it just debilitates them, but sheep will regularly die from a fluke infestation. They can die in a matter of weeks if they get a very bad infection. "If they were on land that had been flooded with water, where there was a very high level of fluke eggs, sheep may need to be dosed once a month because it can kill them in a very short time." However he says that given the serious outcome of not treating sheep, farmers are "fairly diligent" when it comes to dosing.